Willie Taggart was at the helm of a sputtering football program in early October, 2011.

The Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers were 0-4 after enduring a 2-10 record the season before, Taggart's first as head coach. The 2011 season began with lopsided losses to Kentucky, Navy and Indiana State, and Taggart's team was searching for an identity.

They found it in the fifth game, a double-overtime win over Middle Tennessee. That was the first of five wins in a row and the Hilltoppers finished with seven wins in eight games.

It's an experience Taggart ponders as he attempts to breathe life into the South Florida football program. The Bulls were 2-10 in Taggart's first season and they've started 2014 with two losses in three games.

After beating Western Carolina, USF played well in a 24-17 loss to Maryland. Then there was a clunker — a 49-17 loss to North Carolina State, which sparked some grumbling among fans and media.

By the end of the game there were mostly empty seats at Raymond James Stadium.

"I understand [fans'] frustration," Taggart said. "That's understandable. I can tell them to hang in there with us. We would like for them to hang in there with us. We need them to. We're going to get better."

As he leads his team against UConn Friday night, Taggart remains upbeat. It's the first American Athletic Conference game of the season and his team is facing a rebuilding program under a first-year coach.

USF has had some football success over the past decade, with six consecutive bowl appearances under Jim Leavitt and Skip Holtz. There were consecutive nine-win seasons (2006 and 2007), along with upsets over such ranked teams as West Virginia, Florida State, Auburn and Notre Dame .

The program was even ranked No. 2 in the country midway through the 2007 season. But the Bulls never won a conference title, something Taggart is using as incentive for his players.

That's what makes Friday night's game so crucial

"It's very important for us because that's part of our goal," Taggart said. "We want to win this conference, we want to do something that hasn't been done around here before. So it's really important that we start off on the right note. … We got them at home. We've got an opportunity to do it, we've got to take advantage of it right now."

USF finished the 2007 season ranked No. 21 in the country. There would be two eight-win seasons and sporadic appearances in the top 25 rankings, but the program couldn't elevate to the next level.

Enter Holtz, the former UConn coach. Coming off a strong run at East Carolina and inheriting a program in a recruiting hotbed, Holtz had an opportunity to turn USF into a power. He won eight games with players recruited by Leavitt's staff, but the Bulls were 8-16 over the next two years and Holtz was replaced by Taggart.

Fans are still waiting for the revival. Taggart is from nearby Bradenton, Fla., played quarterback at Western Kentucky under Jack Harbaugh and later coached at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh.

On paper, he's just the coach to transform the program. But like his 2011 WKU team, the 2014 USF Bulls are trying to find an identity. Taggart may have been a quarterback, but he is preaching line play as the basis for his team.

"Physical, tough … You know it's coming and you can't do anything about it," Taggart said. "We've got to develop a physical tough identity on that side of the ball."

By that side, he's referring to the offensive line. That unit struggled mightily in the loss to North Carolina State — sound familiar, UConn fans? — and Taggart believes his team's success is predicated on the improvement of the offensive line.

Freshman running back Marlon Mack gained 275 yards on 24 carries in the first game, but his production has slipped (73 yards against Maryland, 51 against N.C. State) as the performance of the offensive line dipped.

"It was very disappointing," Taggart said. "I was more disappointed with our offensive line. Coming into the season, we said that was going to be the strength of our football team. But we're not doing as well as we should right now. … That's not going to work and we've got to get it corrected."

The return of junior guard Thor Jozwiak (321 pounds) will help. Jozwiak missed the past two games with a shoulder and toe injury but is listed as probable.

Taggart, though, understands that line play is only part of the problem. The Bulls need victories to get notice.

The program has slipped into the background in a busy sports market, as attendance figures show — announced crowds of 27,269 and 28,915 the past two games.

"It's on us to earn that support back as a football team," Taggart said. "We have to earn that from our fans, but it's understandable. I can understand why they feel the way they do. Our football team's job is to change those feelings."